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Marco Rubio: My family's flight from Castro

The allegations are an insult to the sacrifices my parents made for their children, Rubio says. |
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In February 1961, my mother took my older siblings to Cuba with the intention of moving back. My father was wrapping up family matters in Miami and was set to join them.

But after just a few weeks, it became clear that the change happening in Cuba was not for the better. It was communism. So in late March 1961, just weeks before the Bay of Pigs invasion, my mother and siblings left Cuba and my family settled permanently in the United States.

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Soon after, Castro officially declared Cuba a Marxist state. My family has never been able to return.

I am the son of immigrants and exiles, raised by people who know all too well that you can lose your country. By people who know firsthand that America is a very special place.

My father spent the last 50 years of his life separated from the nation of his birth. Separated from his two brothers, who died in Cuba in the 1980s. Unable to show us where he played baseball as a boy. Where he met my mother. Unable to visit his parents’ grave.

My mother has spent the last 50 years separated from her native land as well. Unable to take us to her family’s farm, to her schools or to the notary office where she married my father.

A few years ago, using Google Earth, I attempted to take my parents back to Cuba. We found the rooftop of the house where my father was born. What I wouldn’t give to visit these places where my story really began, before I was born.

One day, when Cuba is free, I will. But I wish I could have done it with my parents.

The Post story misses the entire point about my family and why their story is relevant. People didn’t vote for me because they thought my parents came in 1961, or 1956, or any other year. Among others things, they voted for me because, as the son of immigrants, I know how special America really is. As the son of exiles, I know how much it hurts to lose your country.

Ultimately what The Post writes is not that important to me. I am the son of exiles. I inherited two generations of unfulfilled dreams. This is a story that needs no embellishing.Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Don't you think before you in bark on a political endeavor you would check out the story first or even as a young adult you would want to know the dates and reasons and more then the same sometimes changing stories you would told as a child?

The fact that the Washington Post or the Head of the Democrat Party in Florida are trying to give the appearance that Sen Rubio embellished his life story is not surprising. This "newspaper" and the Dem party will do anything to tear other people down and build no one up.

Your life story is a great one Senator and I look forward to you expressing your vision of what the American Dream is and can be for millions of others like you.

An embellishment merchant's worst fear to to be found a fraud on the very thing he needs to fuel is master plan. But uhhhhhm, I didn't know, and uhhhm, don't blame me, appears to be the typical excuse Republicans use as a pattern.

If he can't seem to get the dates on his own family's history correct, I'd be damned if he could manage dates, times and pertinent information for the American people.

As several posters provided last month, being born here by parents who were not citizens makes you an American. However, being born here and not one of your parents being US citizens disqualifies you from being anyone's VP, much less POTUS.

The GOP's darling brown Cuban underling is nothing more than a.........GULP..............ANCHOR BABY.

now know that they entered the U.S. legally on an immigration visa in May of 1956. Not, as some have said before, as part of some special privilege reserved only for Cubans. They came because they wanted to achieve things they could not achieve in their native land.

That they came in 1956 makes the use of "exile" bogus.

Stop embellishing and playing for sympathy.

You had a common (and good) story about America - for you to now try to re-paint it that America became your parents second choice (in that they would have preferred pre-Castro Cuba) is stupid, and trying to make them more noble for it is also stupid and insulting.

This is a transparent effort to bring Rubio down. I think this will help him. Its pretty ridiculous for the left to try this on Rubio after they completely ignored Obama's past (and present) lies, distortions, cons ...etc. Rubio is an accomplished speaker and a sincere person. To the left - forget it - it won't work.

Mr. Rubio, you lied about the timeline. I too am a product of immigrants to this country and my parents remember the dates when they left their homeland and their motives from doing so. To say that you will not tolerate the Washington Post correctiing you on your claims is called hypocrisy.

If you hadn't lied about it on your website - or doubtless in numerous speeches and other instances that will surely begin to surface - then it wouldn't be a big deal.

Senator Rubio, you made this the issue by falsely claiming that his family left Cuba fleeing from Castro. It wasn't the Washington Post or liberal Democrats who made that claim, you did.

You've been caught in a blatant lie, and now you try to double down on it by claiming it is just some kind of confusion over dates, wrapping yourself in the flag, and telling a sob story about your family.

Next thing you know, you'll fire some intern and try to make them take the fall for your lies.

Own up to it, stop blaming the press, and you'll survive politically. But if you keep doubling down on it, there will surely be more examples popping up directly contradicting your fictitious account. Nothing goes away anymore in the days of the internet and digital recording - and every time you've repeated this intentional lie to enhance your political prospects will come back to haunt you.

Soooo, I'm pretty sure I've seen at least his father campaigning with him -so his father never thought that maybe he ought not have his son out there campaigning on false information? So either he or his parents were knowingly deceitful. And further, it's not JUST the LIE but the fact that Marco used it as the basis for a lot of his political stances and positions....he'll he partially ran on this platform exclusively. YOU LIE LITTLE RICKY!!!!!

What a liar you are, Senator Rubio. Now I see you are peddling your lies on POLITICO. Do you have no decency, Senator? Or are you that scared that your lies have finally caught up with you? The people of Florida and of the country deserve better.